Elf

Sommaire

The long-lived elves are children of the natural world, similar in many superficial ways to fey creatures, yet different as well. Elves value their privacy and traditions, and while they are often slow to make friends, at both the personal and national levels, once an outsider is accepted as a comrade, such alliances can last for generations. Elves have a curious attachment to their surroundings, perhaps as a result of their incredibly long lifespans or some deeper, more mystical reason. Elves who dwell in a region for long find themselves physically adapting to match their surroundings, most noticeably taking on coloration reflecting the local environment. Those elves that spend their lives among the short-lived races, on the other hand, often develop a skewed perception of mortality and become morose, the result of watching wave after wave of companions age and die before their eyes.

Physical Description: Although generally taller than humans, elves possess a graceful, fragile physique that is accentuated by their long, pointed ears. Their eyes are wide and almond-shaped, and filled with large, vibrantly colored pupils. While elven clothing often plays off the beauty of the natural world, those elves that live in cities tend to bedeck themselves in the latest fashion.

Society: Many elves feel a bond with nature and strive to live in harmony with the natural world. Most, however, find manipulating earth and stone to be distasteful, and prefer instead to indulge in the finer arts, with their inborn patience making them particularly suited to wizardry.

Relations: Elves are prone to dismissing other races, writing them off as rash and impulsive, yet they are excellent judges of character. An elf might not want a dwarf neighbor, but would be the first to acknowledge that dwarf's skill at smithing. They regard gnomes as strange (and sometimes dangerous) curiosities, and halflings with a measure of pity, for these small folk seem to the elves to be adrift, without a traditional home. Elves are fascinated with humans, as evidenced by the number of half-elves in the world, even if they usually disown such offspring. They regard half-orcs with distrust and suspicion.

Alignment and Religion: Elves are emotional and capricious, yet value kindness and beauty. Most elves are chaotic good.

Adventurers: Many elves embark on adventures out of a desire to explore the world, leaving their secluded forest realms to reclaim forgotten elven magic or search out lost kingdoms established millennia ago by their forefathers. For those raised among humans, the ephemeral and unfettered life of an adventurer holds natural appeal. Elves generally eschew melee because of their frailty, preferring instead to pursue classes such as wizards and rangers.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Elf paragons are proficient with all simple weapons, with elven racial weapons (the double bow, court sword, lightblade, longbow, longsword, rapier, shortbow, thinblade, and any other weapon with "elven" in the name), and with light armor and bucklers.

Spells Per Day: At 2nd, 3rd, and 5th level, an elf paragon gains new spells per day (and spells known is applicable) as if she had gained a level in wizard. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds these levels of elf paragon to her levels in wizard, and then determines her known spells and spells per day accordingly. At 1st and 4th levels, the elf paragon gains a +1 bonus to her effective wizard caster level, meaning that she adds her entire paragon level to her levels in wizard for the purpose of determining caster level.

If the elf paragon has no levels in wizard, she may begin gaining spellcasting ability from that class (she is considered to have a class level of 0, to which she adds these bonus levels).

Elfsight (Ex): At 1st level, an elf paragon’s visual acuity increases. Her racial bonus on Perception checks increase to +4. In addition, the elf paragon’s low-light vision increases in range, allowing her to see three times as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination.

Grace (Ex): An elf paragon gains a +1 dodge bonus to AC when wearing light or no armor. Any time a creature loses its Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class, such as when it’s caught flat-footed, it loses its dodge bonus, too.

Ability Boost: At 3rd level, an elf paragon gains a +2 racial bonus to Intelligence. At 5th level, she increases her racial bonus to Dexterity by +2.

Fast Movement (Ex): At 4th level, an elf paragon’s land speed increases by +10 feet. This benefit applies only when she is wearing light or no armor, and not carrying a medium or heavy load.

Greater Elfsight (Ex): At 4th level, an elf paragon’s visual acuity increases again. Her racial bonus on Perception checks increase to +6. Her low-light vision now allows her to see four times as far as a human in conditions of poor illumination. Also, the range at which the elf paragon receives a free Perception check for coming near a secret or concealed door increases to 10 feet.